The Country of the Blind, and Other Stories

  X.

  THE TREASURE IN THE FOREST.

  The canoe was now approaching the land. The bay opened out, and a gap inthe white surf of the reef marked where the little river ran out to thesea; the thicker and deeper green of the virgin forest showed its coursedown the distant hill slope. The forest here came close to the beach. Farbeyond, dim and almost cloudlike in texture, rose the mountains, likesuddenly frozen waves. The sea was still save for an almost imperceptibleswell. The sky blazed.

  The man with the carved paddle stopped. "It should be somewhere here," hesaid. He shipped the paddle and held his arms out straight before him.

  The other man had been in the fore part of the canoe, closely scrutinisingthe land. He had a sheet of yellow paper on his knee.

  "Come and look at this, Evans," he said.

  Both men spoke in low tones, and their lips were hard and dry.

  The man called Evans came swaying along the canoe until he could look overhis companion's shoulder.

  The paper had the appearance of a rough map. By much folding it wascreased and worn to the pitch of separation, and the second man held thediscoloured fragments together where they had parted. On it one coulddimly make out, in almost obliterated pencil, the outline of the bay.

  "Here," said Evans, "is the reef, and here is the gap." He ran histhumb-nail over the chart.

  "This curved and twisting line is the river--I could do with a drinknow!--and this star is the place."

  "You see this dotted line," said the man with the map; "it is a straightline, and runs from the opening of the reef to a clump of palm-trees. Thestar comes just where it cuts the river. We must mark the place as we gointo the lagoon."

  "It's queer," said Evans, after a pause, "what these little marks downhere are for. It looks like the plan of a house or something; but what allthese little dashes, pointing this way and that, may mean I can't get anotion. And what's the writing?"

  "Chinese," said the man with the map.

  "Of course! _He_ was a Chinee," said Evans.

  "They all were," said the man with the map.

  They both sat for some minutes staring at the land, while the canoedrifted slowly. Then Evans looked towards the paddle.

  "Your turn with the paddle now, Hooker," said he.

  And his companion quietly folded up his map, put it in his pocket, passedEvans carefully, and began to paddle. His movements were languid, likethose of a man whose strength was nearly exhausted.

  Evans sat with his eyes half closed, watching the frothy breakwater of thecoral creep nearer and nearer. The sky was like a furnace, for the sun wasnear the zenith. Though they were so near the Treasure he did not feel theexaltation he had anticipated. The intense excitement of the struggle forthe plan, and the long night voyage from the mainland in the unprovisionedcanoe had, to use his own expression, "taken it out of him." He tried toarouse himself by directing his mind to the ingots the Chinamen had spokenof, but it would not rest there; it came back headlong to the thought ofsweet water rippling in the river, and to the almost unendurable drynessof his lips and throat. The rhythmic wash of the sea upon the reef wasbecoming audible now, and it had a pleasant sound in his ears; the waterwashed along the side of the canoe, and the paddle dripped between eachstroke. Presently he began to doze.

  He was still dimly conscious of the island, but a queer dream textureinterwove with his sensations. Once again it was the night when he andHooker had hit upon the Chinamen's secret; he saw the moonlit trees, thelittle fire burning, and the black figures of the three Chinamen--silveredon one side by moonlight, and on the other glowing from the firelight--andheard them talking together in pigeon-English--for they came fromdifferent provinces. Hooker had caught the drift of their talk first, andhad motioned to him to listen. Fragments of the conversation wereinaudible, and fragments incomprehensible. A Spanish galleon from thePhilippines hopelessly aground, and its treasure buried against the day ofreturn, lay in the background of the story; a shipwrecked crew thinned bydisease, a quarrel or so, and the needs of discipline, and at last takingto their boats never to be heard of again. Then Chang-hi, only a yearsince, wandering ashore, had happened upon the ingots hidden for twohundred years, had deserted his junk, and reburied them with infinitetoil, single-handed but very safe. He laid great stress on the safety--itwas a secret of his. Now he wanted help to return and exhume them.Presently the little map fluttered and the voices sank. A fine story fortwo, stranded British wastrels to hear! Evans' dream shifted to the momentwhen he had Chang-hi's pigtail in his hand. The life of a Chinaman isscarcely sacred like a European's. The cunning little face of Chang-hi,first keen and furious like a startled snake, and then fearful,treacherous, and pitiful, became overwhelmingly prominent in the dream. Atthe end Chang-hi had grinned, a most incomprehensible and startling grin.Abruptly things became very unpleasant, as they will do at times indreams. Chang-hi gibbered and threatened him. He saw in his dream heapsand heaps of gold, and Chang-hi intervening and struggling to hold himback from it. He took Chang-hi by the pig-tail--how big the yellow brutewas, and how he struggled and grinned! He kept growing bigger, too. Thenthe bright heaps of gold turned to a roaring furnace, and a vast devil,surprisingly like Chang-hi, but with a huge black tail, began to feed himwith coals. They burnt his mouth horribly. Another devil was shouting hisname: "Evans, Evans, you sleepy fool!"--or was it Hooker?

  He woke up. They were in the mouth of the lagoon.

  "There are the three palm-trees. It must be in a line with that clump ofbushes," said his companion. "Mark that. If we, go to those bushes andthen strike into the bush in a straight line from here, we shall come toit when we come to the stream."

  They could see now where the mouth of the stream opened out. At the sightof it Evans revived. "Hurry up, man," he said, "or by heaven I shall haveto drink sea water!" He gnawed his hand and stared at the gleam of silveramong the rocks and green tangle.

  Presently he turned almost fiercely upon Hooker. "Give _me_ thepaddle," he said.

  So they reached the river mouth. A little way up Hooker took some water inthe hollow of his hand, tasted it, and spat it out. A little further hetried again. "This will do," he said, and they began drinking eagerly.

  "Curse this!" said Evans suddenly. "It's too slow." And, leaningdangerously over the fore part of the canoe, he began to suck up the waterwith his lips.

  Presently they made an end of drinking, and, running the canoe into alittle creek, were about to land among the thick growth that overhung thewater.

  "We shall have to scramble through this to the beach to find our bushesand get the line to the place," said Evans.

  "We had better paddle round," said Hooker.

  So they pushed out again into the river and paddled back down it to thesea, and along the shore to the place where the clump of bushes grew. Herethey landed, pulled the light canoe far up the beach, and then went uptowards the edge of the jungle until they could see the opening of thereef and the bushes in a straight line. Evans had taken a native implementout of the canoe. It was L-shaped, and the transverse piece was armed withpolished stone. Hooker carried the paddle. "It is straight now in thisdirection," said he; "we must push through this till we strike the stream.Then we must prospect."

  They pushed through a close tangle of reeds, broad fronds, and youngtrees, and at first it was toilsome going, but very speedily the treesbecame larger and the ground beneath them opened out. The blaze of thesunlight was replaced by insensible degrees by cool shadow. The treesbecame at last vast pillars that rose up to a canopy of greenery faroverhead. Dim white flowers hung from their stems, and ropy creepers swungfrom tree to tree. The shadow deepened. On the ground, blotched fungi anda red-brown incrustation became frequent.

  Evans shivered. "It seems almost cold here after the blaze outside."

  "I hope we are keeping to the straight," said Hooker.

  Presently they saw, far ahead, a gap in the sombre darkness where whiteshafts of hot sunlight smote into the forest. There also wa
s brilliantgreen undergrowth and coloured flowers. Then they heard the rush of water.

  "Here is the river. We should be close to it now," said Hooker.

  The vegetation was thick by the river bank. Great plants, as yet unnamed,grew among the roots of the big trees, and spread rosettes of huge greenfans towards the strip of sky. Many flowers and a creeper with shinyfoliage clung to the exposed stems. On the water of the broad, quiet poolwhich the treasure-seekers now overlooked there floated big oval leavesand a waxen, pinkish-white flower not unlike a water-lily. Further, as theriver bent away from them, the water suddenly frothed and became noisy ina rapid.

  "Well?" said Evans.

  "We have swerved a little from the straight," said Hooker. "That was to beexpected."

  He turned and looked into the dim cool shadows of the silent forest behindthem. "If we beat a little way up and down the stream we should come tosomething."

  "You said--" began Evans.

  "_He_ said there was a heap of stones," said Hooker.

  The two men looked at each other for a moment.

  "Let us try a little down-stream first," said Evans.

  They advanced slowly, looking curiously about them. Suddenly Evansstopped. "What the devil's that?" he said.

  Hooker followed his finger. "Something blue," he said. It had come intoview as they topped a gentle swell of the ground. Then he began todistinguish what it was.

  He advanced suddenly with hasty steps, until the body that belonged to thelimp hand and arm had become visible. His grip tightened on the implementhe carried. The thing was the figure of a Chinaman lying on his face. The_abandon_ of the pose was unmistakable.

  The two men drew closer together, and stood staring silently at thisominous dead body. It lay in a clear space among the trees. Near by was aspade after the Chinese pattern, and further off lay a scattered heap ofstones, close to a freshly dug hole.

  "Somebody has been here before," said Hooker, clearing his throat.

  Then suddenly Evans began to swear and rave, and stamp upon the ground.

  Hooker turned white but said nothing. He advanced towards the prostratebody. He saw the neck was puffed and purple, and the hands and anklesswollen. "Pah!" he said, and suddenly turned away and went towards theexcavation. He gave a cry of surprise. He shouted to Evans, who wasfollowing him slowly.

  "You fool! It's all right. It's here still." Then he turned again andlooked at the dead Chinaman, and then again at the hole.

  Evans hurried to the hole. Already half exposed by the ill-fated wretchbeside them lay a number of dull yellow bars. He bent down in the hole,and, clearing off the soil with his bare hands, hastily pulled one of theheavy masses out. As he did so a little thorn pricked his hand. He pulledthe delicate spike out with his fingers and lifted the ingot.

  "Only gold or lead could weigh like this," he said exultantly.

  Hooker was still looking at the dead Chinaman. He was puzzled.

  "He stole a march on his friends," he said at last. "He came here alone,and some poisonous snake has killed him... I wonder how he found theplace."

  Evans stood with the ingot in his hands. What did a dead Chinaman signify?"We shall have to take this stuff to the mainland piecemeal, and bury itthere for a while. How shall we get it to the canoe?"

  He took his jacket off and spread it on the ground, and flung two or threeingots into it. Presently he found that another little thorn had puncturedhis skin.

  "This is as much as we can carry," said he. Then suddenly, with a queerrush of irritation, "What are you staring at?"

  Hooker turned to him. "I can't stand him ..." He nodded towards thecorpse. "It's so like----"

  "Rubbish!" said Evans. "All Chinamen are alike."

  Hooker looked into his face. "I'm going to bury _that_, anyhow,before I lend a hand with this stuff."

  "Don't be a fool, Hooker," said Evans, "Let that mass of corruption bide."

  Hooker hesitated, and then his eye went carefully over the brown soilabout them. "It scares me somehow," he said.

  "The thing is," said Evans, "what to do with these ingots. Shall were-bury them over here, or take them across the strait in the canoe?"

  Hooker thought. His puzzled gaze wandered among the tall tree-trunks, andup into the remote sunlit greenery overhead. He shivered again as his eyerested upon the blue figure of the Chinaman. He stared searchingly amongthe grey depths between the trees.

  "What's come to you, Hooker?" said Evans. "Have you lost your wits?"

  "Let's get the gold out of this place, anyhow," said Hooker.

  He took the ends of the collar of the coat in his hands, and Evans tookthe opposite corners, and they lifted the mass. "Which way?" said Evans."To the canoe?"

  "It's queer," said Evans, when they had advanced only a few steps, "but myarms ache still with that paddling."

  "Curse it!" he said. "But they ache! I must rest."

  They let the coat down, Evans' face was white, and little drops of sweatstood out upon his forehead. "It's stuffy, somehow, in this forest."

  Then with an abrupt transition to unreasonable anger: "What is the good ofwaiting here all the day? Lend a hand, I say! You have done nothing butmoon since we saw the dead Chinaman."

  Hooker was looking steadfastly at his companion's face. He helped raisethe coat bearing the ingots, and they went forward perhaps a hundred yardsin silence. Evans began to breathe heavily. "Can't you speak?" he said.

  "What's the matter with you?" said Hooker.

  Evans stumbled, and then with a sudden curse flung the coat from him. Hestood for a moment staring at Hooker, and then with a groan clutched athis own throat.

  "Don't come near me," he said, and went and leant against a tree. Then ina steadier voice, "I'll be better in a minute."

  Presently his grip upon the trunk loosened, and he slipped slowly down thestem of the tree until he was a crumpled heap at its foot. His hands wereclenched convulsively. His face became distorted with pain. Hookerapproached him.

  "Don't touch me! Don't touch me!" said Evans in a stifled voice. "Put thegold back on the coat."

  "Can't I do anything for you?" said Hooker.

  "Put the gold back on the coat."

  As Hooker handled the ingots he felt a little prick on the ball of histhumb. He looked at his hand and saw a slender thorn, perhaps two inchesin length.

  Evans gave an inarticulate cry and rolled over.

  Hooker's jaw dropped. He stared at the thorn for a moment with dilatedeyes. Then he looked at Evans, who was now crumpled together on theground, his back bending and straightening spasmodically. Then he lookedthrough the pillars of the trees and net-work of creeper stems, to wherein the dim grey shadow the blue-clad body of the Chinaman was stillindistinctly visible. He thought of the little dashes in the corner of theplan, and in a moment he understood.

  "God help me!" he said. For the thorns were similar to those the Dyakspoison and use in their blowing-tubes. He understood now what Chang-hi'sassurance of the safety of his treasure meant. He understood that grinnow.

  "Evans!" he cried.

  But Evans was silent and motionless, save for a horrible spasmodictwitching of his limbs. A profound silence brooded over the forest.

  Then Hooker began to suck furiously at the little pink spot on the ball ofhis thumb--sucking for dear life. Presently he felt a strange aching painin his arms and shoulders, and his fingers seemed difficult to bend. Thenhe knew that sucking was no good.

  Abruptly he stopped, and sitting down by the pile of ingots, and restinghis chin upon his hands and his elbows upon his knees, stared at thedistorted but still quivering body of his companion. Chang-hi's grin cameinto his mind again. The dull pain spread towards his throat and grewslowly in intensity. Far above him a faint breeze stirred the greenery,and the white petals of some unknown flower came floating down through thegloom.